This was all very interesting because I hadn’t done anything to reboot the computer. No power failures or anything like that had occurred. I’m not even sure what caused it to reboot. I seriously doubt that downloading the VMWare player had anything to do with my problem. :)

My computer is a home built tower with an ASUS P5Q-EM motherboard which was purchased on 2009-10-04, so it’s not very old! I was thinking “infant mortality failure” but I didn’t want to give in to a hardware problem just yet. I run a RAID 1 array using two Seagate ST3750640NS drives with Intel Storage Manager. I’ve been very pleased…until now!

From a h/w perspective, I went through several iterations of disconnecting disk devices on the inside of the tower to eliminate each device as a potential invalid boot source. I disconnected my CD and DVD drives, two external hdd trays and my USB card reader, just to make sure it wasn’t trying to boot off an invalid device. I also made several changes to the boot order to insure something weird wasn’t going on there. Same error.

So, I got the Windows 7 DVD and booted from it and went into the repair mode, which seems to be very similar to what Windows Vista offers. I let it perform the automatic startup repair. It reported to have found the problem and fixed it (no valid boot partition), but upon rebooting I was left with the same error. So, I started digging…

I then proceeded to go down the road of creating a new Boot Configuration Data file, which I had never done before. It seems like this is the replacement (since Windows Vista) for the boot.ini file and you need a special command line tool (BCDEdit) to modify it. That’s certainly easier…NOT!

Start by deleting the original bcd file (mine wasn’t there to begin with; neither was the \boot directory). del C:\boot\bcd

Then I could continue from the previous procedure of creating the BCD file.bcdedit /set {bootmgr} device partition=C: bcdedit /timeout 10 del c:\boot\bcd.temp

Now we have a clean, working Windows 7 bootloader. But we need to add a Windows 7 entry to it:

bcdedit /create /d "Windows 7" /application osloader

BCDEdit should return a message with a GUID (the big, ugly unique identifier in bold) for the newly-created entry, something like this:

The entry {c0dfc4fa-cb21-11dc-81bf-005056c00008} was successfully created.

A word of advice. Use the copy/paste features in the command window to copy the GUID assigned so you don’t have to type it over and over in the next steps. Do NOT use the GUID displayed here for representative purposes!

Again, you’ll need to use the value that BCDEdit returned, along with the drive letter for the drive that Windows 7 is installed to, and substitute those values into the BCDEdit commands shown.

And, last of all, tell the Windows 7 bootloader to boot the new entry by default:

bcdedit /displayorder {c0dfc4fa-cb21-11dc-81bf-005056c00008}

After completing all these steps and rebooting, I still ended up with a problem.

“Bootmgr is missing”

To repair this problem, I again booted from the Window 7 DVD and went into the repair mode. I allowed it to automatically repair the boot problems. The repair tool reported that the “boot manager is missing or corrupt” and attempted to repair the problem. After rebooting, it worked! Everything was back to normal.

Menzies Chensaid

Amazing, this exact problem popped up for me today, and I followed your fixes to the T. I even got the same error messages as you did on the way. And now I’m up and running! THANKS!!!!!

For those who might be interested, this message came up on my computer when I removed one of my hard drives. I used to run Vista, and decided to install an entirely new hard drive and dual boot Windows 7. I’m so happy with 7 that I decided tonight to take out my other hard drive to add to my Home Server drive pool. My Vista hard drive must have had the proper boot manager to allow me to dual boot, and when I took it out, so went my boot records.

Also, I hit a couple of snags along the way (just some minor typos), but a good minute of staring at your post was all I needed to figure out what you meant. For others out there, here are a couple of clarifications which may help.

1. After the DISKPART section, resend the import command from above before moving on.
2. The line “bcdedit /timeout 10 del c:\boot\bcd.temp” is actually two lines: “bcdedit /timeout 10″ and “del c:\boot\bcd.temp”.
3. At the very end I still got “Bootmgr is missing”, even after letting Windows 7 automatically repair my hard drive the first time. I booted using the Win7 installation disk, and then selected “Startup Repair” to make a second attempt. The second time worked for me.

Russell Wrightsaid

Thanks for the great comments. I’m wondering if there is a problem with removing single drives that are being managed by Intel’s RAID s/w (I have one in a removable tray) and swapping in another drive. Haven’t tested it, but this has crossed my mind as a source of my initial problem.

Gophersaid

Thanks for the info…although I followed it to the word I still have a really Strange Problem.

I installed Linux some time ago and in my wrong-doing somehow managed to screw up my Win 7 Loader…when I used the Repair option on the Windows 7 disc it did repair it but now I just get a black screen with a blinking cursor(the dos cursor) and no errors..

I resolved this by booting from Hiren’s boot disc which has(thankfully) got an option to do so…And therein lies my problem…I cant boot without that Disc and I cant fix my booting with the Repair option…

Once I installed Linux again I have the Option of “Windows 7″ but then it gives me the error “Bootmanager is compressed”

My experience is exactly the same as the first comment; I’d installed Windows 7 with my Vista drive plugged in, intending to dual boot. When I found I no longer required Vista any more, I removed the drive, resulting in the error.

Thank you so much for posting this. It was lengthy, but also kind of fun – almost like playing Uplink again. ;)

Brandonsaid

Omg, you are amazing!!! I had unplugged my computer in order to test out a mb for my grandmother, it will be a major upgrade, 600mhz to 2ghz. Anyways, I formated my 120gb drive to install xp and test the old mb out, I don’t know how, but it somehow affected the bootmgr on my 700gb drive, either that, or the 700gb drive is going out. I thought I was going to have to reinstall win7 and get my bluetooth drivers working again, which took nearly a week the first time. This saved me SO MUCH time, thank you SO MUCH!!!!

Bartsaid

Thank you so much. I had the same exact issue and going through this guide step-by-step solved it. I was pulling out my hair, pulling out sata cables, pulling out hard drive bays, pulling out USB cables…

Klolsmoisaid

Joeysaid

May the gods bless you with everlasting life, prosperity and all that you wish in this world. You seriously saved me and my newly built PC. I had the SAME EXACT PROBLEMS down to the very last error message and repair. As close as other people got to my problem, nobody hit it on the head like you did. Thank you and thank you again. I will forever be in your debt.
-Joey

P.S. BTW, has anybody determined what has caused so many people to suffer from this?

Russell Wrightsaid

Marcsaid

I’ve come across this error while re-installing Windows 7. I’ve wiped the drive and started the installation and while installing I got an error stating that there was a required driver missing. When I restarted, I received this error “Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key. I’ve reset the CMOS and checked the cables and drives but still the same issue. Neither my DVD drive or HDD are showing up in the BIOS so I can’t boot to the Windows 7 disc to get to the command prompt. I was wondering if I need to replace my HD or would that just be a waste of my time and money?

Kingsaid

Travissaid

Just an FYI for everyone, be sure you don’t have any other drives (USB or otherwise) when you are troubleshooting this problem!! Your system may be trying to boot from them, which would be unsuccessful (unless they happen to be bootable and have a valid OS on them of course).

Here’s more detail…. I had this exact issue and was about to perform the recovery steps that have seemed to have worked for everyone. I then had a small epiphany. For me, this issue started when I tried to come out of standby — my computer turned on but nothing else after that (no video, and computer was otherwise unresponsive). I then reset it and saw the error that this post is about. I then realized that I had just got an external USB drive which I had attached to my computer a day or two ago and immedately suspected it might be the issue. Sure enough, when I unplugged it from my computer and restarted, windows came back without issue. So I now just need to take the USB out of my boot sequence in my BIOS (or just move it after the hard drives).

Zylocksaid

God Bless you, you brilliant man!
My brand new beauty of a gaming-rig had at install access to two hard drives, a 500gb and 1tb, with the 500gb being the primary OS drive with Windows 7 Home Premium on it. Unfortunately, the 1tb drive wound up being worth less than its casing, and died on me a few days ago after clicking and making weird noises for a month.

Turns out, Windows decided to put all the boot settings on the secondary, 1tb drive! *shakes head in disgust*
Just one more reason added to my list of “Reasons why I hate Windows.”
With my perfectly functioning 500gb drive containing my perfectly legit, stable, pretty install of Windows 7, connected and recognized by the BIOS as the primary SATA, I was constantly getting the “Please insert proper boot media,” error. Windows refused to boot. I tried swapping SATA cables, changing BIOS settings, I ran the ‘Live – try it without installing,’ version of Ubuntu and attempted a few disc utilites; I tried every option that the Windows 7 install disc had for repair features. I tried everything, to no avail.

Note for anyone else who finds this: I wasn’t able to get the Windows 7 ‘Repair Install,’ feature on the Win7 DVD to actually see my Windows 7 partition until AFTER I’d completed the above steps. Also, I was sure to switch from X:\ to C:\ for all of the steps. Not sure if it was necessary, though.

Mahessaid

when i turn on my PC it is showing that “reboot-select-proper-boot-device-insert-boot-media-selected
or insert boot media in slelected in boot device and press key” then i try to repair and restore with repair disc but it fails then i try to reinstal fresh copy of operating system(win7,win xp sp2…) but it shows that ” NO DRIVES TO INSTALL WHERE TO INSTALL”

What to do i do no? i have show many very important data’s i want to recover that data’s
any way to recover
any service centre to recover (bangalore)
please hlp me

Timsaid

Russell, thank you, thank you, thank you! I had vision of gigabytes of data being lost in the aether – all I was trying to do was install an additional hdd when I got the dreaded “Reboot and select proper boot device, or insert boot media in selected boot device and press any key.”

What you described above worked perfectly until the very last instruction – I had to run the repair tool from the DVD twice, but my OS is now up and runnig as it should

Alexsaid

rubbensaid

thanks for your description. I have the same problem, started yesterday. Same reboot and select proper boot device blablabla. I only want to know if I follow your guide and steps, my HDD won’t format? Cause you said at the end everything was back to normal? Also you got all your files back?

GAHH I followed this guide and Menzies Chen’s comment, and on the last step, i let the recovery disk auto correct the boot manager, but it didnt work. Menzies said (s)he had to do the startup repair, and when I click startup repair, it tells me “Startup Repair cannot repair this computer automatically”

In Diagnositics, the following tests ran successfully,
Check For Updates
System Disk Test
Disk Failure Diagnosis
Disk metadata Test
without errors, and then it tells it error code 0x2 because it failed running “File Repair”.

I restarted my computer and tried again too, but it still doesnt work! help!

darkeidsaid

The same pc that was repaired with this method presented the exact same problem after 3 weeks (BootMgr missing). My friend was watching a vid on Youtube when the pc crashed he reports that the sound from the vid kept stuttering endlessly.

We replaced the HDD just in case and reformatted it with Win7 32 (new Sata cable) and it presented the same thing its working again by following the same steps mentioned here.

Would you be kind enough to share your thoughts as to what you think might be causing this prob. Do you think a faulty RAM chip could effect the BootMgr or do we replace the Mobo ? I replaced a faulty ram chip on that machine a while back due to it causing BSOD’s (the second chip that was bought on the same date is still on the Mobo , both chips old / new are identical).

It might not matter but this machine also has a faulty front 120mm fan that stops periodically (owner did not want it to be replaced dont ask me why) plus one of the jacks of the onboard soundcard needs to be tied / held at an angle in order for the subwoofer to work.

sansej4said

could someone help me ?? and tell me where do you type this commands
Bootrec /fixmbr
Bootrec /fixboot
Bootrec /scanos
Bootrec /rebuildbcd
because i can only get to bios after that it shows me the same thing with “Reboot and select proper boot device, or insert boot media in selected boot device and press any key

renanferrariarisaid

I love you! hahaha Your article is from 2009, but today, after install the brand new Windows 8 Developer Preview in one of my partitions, I got the same error when I tried to get back Windows 7. Only your fix worked for me. Thank you!

Mjaegersaid

Thank you, what an amazing article.
A little adendum: Even after activating the partition via diskpart, I still got “The store import operation has failed. The requested system device cannot be found.”.
What did the trick for me was running
chkdsk.exe /f
on the c:-partition. Afterwards, the automatic boot repair thingie recognized the volume and everything works fine now.

Wow! What a recovery procedure… Thank you soo much. I’ll follow it when I’ll have the time to do it. Meanwhile, a very quick fix that is working for me until now… Start the ASUS Laptop, get the famous message “Reboot and Select Proper Boot Device….” -> CTRL + ALT + DELETE -> The laptop restart and Windows 7 start like a charm…

Øystein Olsensaid

I also came to the message saying BootMgr missing. I had to reboot using my windows 7 dvd. Select repair and reboot on the popup that came up when i selected repair installation. Then I had to reboot again. And select repair boot problems. Then finally it booted windows again.

Jonathansaid

Thank-you so much for this post. It saved my bacon and made my day! VERY simple to follow, and best of all it actually works!

Without realizing the consequences I’d installed Windows 7 on a new drive without first removing my XP install. When the XP disk eventually died, I had no more Boot Loader, no MBR, no… well… anything. I thought I was going to have to reinstall Windows 7 from scratch until I found your post. I followed the instructions, and Bam! Windows!

vicsaid

I had the same situation as Menzies Chen, original vista hard drive had to remain connected when booting to new win7 drive.
I resolved by using free EasyBCD 2.1.2 program. With a couple of clicks, was able to change the boot drive to the win7 drive. Disconnected old vista drive and all good.

iMeteoLegendsaid

Weird.. it doesnt work for me…
I have removed my whole system (and reformatted)
It is an ASUS, and it did NOT come with a Windows Disc, instead, it came with a Asus+Windows Disc… =.=” And therefore I cannot do the last step. :O

Anonymoussaid

After trying all the solutions above, here is how I fixed it. It took me 5 minutes and I ended up donating to EasyBSD!

The main issue I couldn’t get past was “The requested system device cannot be found.”

I downloaded a copy of SuperGrub 2 and created a boot CD.http://www.supergrubdisk.org/super-grub2-disk/
After booting form CD, I selected “Detect Any Operating System’. It found 2 Vista boots. The first one was giving me the same issue I had from the start – error loading c:\boot\bcd. The 2nd booted into Windows 7 perfectly. Yeah! My Windows 7 system was all there!

Once in Win7, I downloaded and installed EasyBSDhttp://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/. I had it install a new boot mbr, selecting Windows 7 option. Rebooted, and walla! All was working again.

Hope this help the next person. I spent 4 hours trying to perform a manual recreation of the boot member and store.

George K.said

C dubsaid

I had this issue when I installed new realtek drivers. And then again doing the same thing later on, luckily i ran into an easy fix that worked for me and wil hopefully work for others.
– spam del or f8 (whatever your bios key is) right as you start up the power. Then just exit with or without saving to windows and it skills load right up.
Hope it works for others.

Harishsaid

Anthonysaid

I was dubious when I saw this because of the length, but it worked! Thanks so much

I know when I messed up, it was when I set my C: partition as active within windows and the boot records were not copied from the system reserved “active” partition to the C:, thanks windows useful option.

Mortensaid

Swagatasaid

It happened with me once. Had more than one hard disks and then removed one of them. This caused the same problem which many have faced as mentioned in this forum. Thought of trying something different. Removed all additional hard disks (internal + external) except the one which had windows 7 installed. Then did a RTCCLK jumper reset in the motherboard. (See your motherboard manual to do this.) Powered on my PC. It automatically started windows repair. Followed the process. Do not system restore. It may complete or may not. Just ignore what ever it is. The system will reboot once. And that solved it. Shut down the system properly. Add all other harddisk drives and restarted my PC. It worked. I have done this before. And so far worked always.